THE DOVE AS A SYMBOL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
All the Gospels relate that
the descent of the Spirit on the newly baptized Christ was symbolized by the appearance
of a bodily form (Lc. iii. 22) which resembled a dove (Mc. i. 10, Mt. iii, 16,
Lc. l.c., Jo. i. 32). Whether the dove was real or spectacular it was
clearly symbolic of the Spirit which henceforth rested on the humanity of the Lord.
What was the exact meaning of
the symbol? Why was the dove chosen rather than some other symbol of the
Spirit, such as water, fire, or wind?
In the O.T. the dove meets
us in the story of the Flood (Gen. iii. 8 ff.), and in connexion with sacrificial
rites (Gen. xv. 9, Lev. I, 14, &c.; cf. Lc. ii, 24, Mc. xi, 15). Its flight
is the type of swiftness and beauty (Ps. Lv. 6, lxviii. 13); its gentleness and
grace supplied the Eastern lover with an image for the person or the eyes of
his beloved (Cant. i. 15, ii. 14, iv. 1, v. 2, 12, vi. 9). IN other passages it
seems to be used as a symbol of Israel, inoffensive and defenceless among the
nations of the earth (Ps. lxxiv. 19, Hos. vii, 11, xi. 11). More than one ancient
writer remarks upon the sacredness of the dove in Syria (Lucian, dea Syra
54 περιστερη χρημα ιροτατον και ουδε ψαυειν αυτων δικαιευσι; Tibullus i. 7 alba Palestino sancta
columba Syro), but whether this feeling prevailed in Israel there is not sufficient
evidence to shew.
Our Lord (Mt. x. 16) speaks
of the dove as the embodiment of the harmlessness which was characteristic of
His own human life (Heb. vii. 26; cf. Clem. Al. paed. i. 14), and ought
to characterize His disciples.
Mr. F. C. Conybeare (Expositor
IX. ix. P. 454) has pointed out that Philo regards the dove as the symbol of
the Divine Wisdom; the τρυγων is φιλερημος, την μονωσιν
αγαπωσα the περιστερα is ημερος, διαιτη τη
μετα θνητων ασμενιζουσα, and Wisdom has both
qualities. It is more than precarious to suppose that Philo influenced the
Christian tradition of the Baptism. But it is possible that the association of
the dove with Wisdom or the Holy Spirit was familiar to his generation, and if
so, the choice of the symbol may be in some measure due to that circumstance.
But behind this or any other
symbolism there probably lay the reference to Gen. i. 2 to the birdlike
hovering of the Spirit of God over the waters of the chaos. At the Bpatism the
New Creation took its rise out of the waters of the Jordan; the Spirit of God again
moved upon the face of the waters, bringing forth an ordered life. The form of
the descending birth represented this greater mystery; that the bird was a dove
may be explained by the associations already mentioned. (Henry Barclay Swete, The
Holy Spirit in the New Testament: A Study of Primitive Christian Teaching [London:
Macmillan and Co., 1910], 365-66)
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